Melted Snowmen Cookies

I saw this great idea on the internet and just had to make them. The kids had a blast with this cookie making experience. We did it for FHE on night and really enjoyed making and eating them.

New Years Eve

2012!!!!!
I can't believe it is 2012. We stayed home this year for New Years Eve. We usually have people over but this year it was just us. Jared wasn't feeling up to much. We had a fun time with the kids. We played some new games we got for Christmas and had some food. The nicest thing is all the kids where there. Brook is so busy we just love it when she is home. It was a fun party.










Poor Carson was so excited to stay up until midnight and then he fell asleep on the couch.

Nativity

So I did forget something from 2011. Not a big surprise. They do a nativity celebration in our city every year where they have tons of nativities of display from all over the world. It is really nice to go to. It is so fun to see all the nativities and really get into the Christmas spirit. This year my kids had the chance to be a part of the live nativity. They had to hold still for fifteen minutes at a time. Carson took this very serious. They looked great up there.

Christmas

This should have us caught up with all the fun of 2011. I hope I didn't forget anything to important. We had a wonderful Christmas. I can't even begin to tell you how blessed our family is. We got spoiled rotten this year. I told my neighbor that I felt guilty that we were so blessed and he said to me" well you know people have free agency and if they want to spoil your family they do it of there own free choice". He also reminded me where guilt comes from. I am so grateful for the Christlike love of others. If it was you. Thank you!
I shared this story with some people but I feel since this is my journal in a way that I want to share it here. Jared and I really wanted to buy Christmas early this year so we started in the summer to get things every month and felt pretty good about Christmas coming. Then we found out that his medications he is on where going to cost a lot of money. Frustration set in and we had not idea how we would pay for his medicine for the month of December. So with broken hearts we packed up the van and took back our Christmas. I cried as we left the toy store and have to admit felt a little sorry for myself. We had tried so hard. It was just a few days latter that we had an offer to help our family with Christmas. We felt so blessed by the Lord. He knows what we have to go through and he always sends us the blessings. Sometimes it doesn't come as obvious as this one but if you look you can see them. This whole experience was very humbling for me. I hope some day I can pay it forward to some other family that needs a boost.
On Christmas eve day my mom and dad brought over a special present for Jared. My family decided instead of buying gifts for each other that they wanted to get something fun for Jared. So they surprised him with a Kindle Fire. He was so excited. And touched by there love for him.

The one thing Jared and I refused to take back was what we decided to get for our Christmas eve PJS. We found a great deal on football jerseys and so we got everyone a jersey. Jared wheres his all the time and we thought it would be fun for all of us to have one too. The kids loved them. Except Morgan. She cried and cried she said she didn't want boy pajamas and she was not happy with us when we made her put them on for a picture. She has not worn hers since. The other kids wear theres all the time.

The other thing we didn't take back was some lego racers that we got everyone. We opened those on Christmas eve also. It was fun to put together our cars and race them to pass the time on Christmas eve. It was a blast!On Your Mark get set go!

Lining up to see what Santa brought.


Before the opening




After opening







This year Christmas was on a Sunday. I loved having Christmas on a Sunday. It was so fun to dress up and go to sacrament meeting. The spirit was so strong. It just made the reason for Christmas so much more at the front of things. The birth of our Savor Jesus Christ. He gave the greatest gift of all. I don't know how I could survive a day without that gift. The kids all got new church clothes and they looked so nice.

Some other pictures I just couldn't leave out. Like I said it was a great Christmas.
Madison was thrilled to get a yoga mat. She loves doing yoga


Jared just had to try on Carson's new Captan America costume


Carson in his Captan America costume (so cute)

Nutcracker

November 2011
Madison was in Nutcracker again this year. She was an Angel. The Angel dance is one of my favorite dances and she did such a good job. She had to wear a wig so it was very hot to wear on stage. But she had a great time like always. In the dance they have to hold candles for a long with there arms extended ,so to get ready for the candle holding she would practice by holding gallons of milk for as long as possible. I thought it was cute that she wanted to be so ready for her part. I will scan a picture in as soon as I figure out how to do it.

A rough month for Preston

Before Surgery



After Surgery

November 2011

So I have to admit that poor Preston has been neglected by Jared and I. He told us in july he had ingrown toenails and we just kind of blew him off. He also let me know how hard it was for him to run because he couldn't breath through his nose. Again I just didn't really do anything about it. The poor kid has been snoring for years and I didn't think much about it. Then we go to the orthodontist and he tells me that they can't do anything more with his work without a gum graft.
I finally decided to help the poor kid and scheduled him to get his ingrown toenails done. Both big toes were bad. He did that then a week later I had him into the ENT office. A week after that he was ready for surgery. Tonsils, adenoids needed to come out and a deviated septum needed to be fixed. Poor kid. Then a week or so after that he was in getting his gum graft. He was a trooper through it all. I was crazy busy with finals for school at the time and doing Nutcracker with Madison so the poor kid just kind of took care of himself. Now that it is all over and everything is healed up he is glad we did it.

A funny story that goes along with his ENT surgeries they gave Preston his anesthetic and went to wheel him back to the operating room. All the way down the hall he was holding his hands up and yelling "Wheee" He thought he was on a roller coaster. The doctors and nurses where all laughing at him. Thats my boy!

Leaves, Leaves and more Leaves

We had so many Leaves in our yard this year it was crazy. I counted the bags when we were done and it was 40 big lawn bags full of leaves. But I had some great help. My kids worked hard.

Carson hiding in the middle of the bags of leaves. He thought it was a great fort.